Huskies survive big scare

Published 1:00 am, Thursday, December 4, 2008

AMHERST, N.Y. -- There are close shaves, and then there are times when you get bloodied and bruised trying to escape.

Thursday night at Alumni Arena the UConn men's basketball team experienced the latter. The second-ranked Huskies came within an inch of a stunning loss, slipping past Buffalo 68-64 before 4,899 rabid fans.

Hasheem Thabeet
and
Jeff Adrien
dominated the interior for the Huskies (8-0), combining for 39 points, 25 rebounds and eight blocks, but prevailed only after
the Bulls
(3-3) wasted an opportunity in the final seconds to win or at least send the game into overtime.

"We're UConn and we're ranked No. 2 so everybody's coming at us," said Thabeet, who had 21 points, 18 rebounds and four blocks.

Buffalo guard
Rodney Pierce
, who had already torched the Huskies for a career-high 28 points, passed up the potential game-winning or tying shot with four seconds to go. Pierce tried to pass to teammate
Max Boudreau
, but UConn's
Kemba Walker
came up with a steal instead.

"If Pierce turns, throws up a three as the clock goes off, they get themselves a win," UConn coach
Jim Calhoun
said. "They were that close."

Walker made two free throws with .6 seconds to go that provided the final margin.

Buffalo led by as much as eight points in the first half and by three midway through the second half. UConn had finally begun to pull away with five minutes to play in the game, taking a 63-56 lead.

But a silly foul by Thabeet with 40 seconds to play and a turnover three seconds later nearly cost UConn dearly.

With UConn leading 66-62 and less than a minute left in the game,
Jerome Dyson
drove the lane and missed a runner. Thabeet then fouled Pierce on the rebound, sending the Bulls' best player to the line with 40.6 to play.

After inbounding the ball once and being forced to call time out, UConn attempted to put the ball in play again.
Craig Austrie
in-bounded the ball to Walker but Walker slipped and traveled with 37.3 still on the clock.

Pierce missed once on a driving attempt to tie the game with 21 seconds left but rebounded his own miss. The Bulls were still down two with possession of the ball when the called time out with 18.9 seconds to play.

Instead of Pierce attempting a shot, however, he surprised everyone by passing.

"Yeah, I was," Calhoun said when asked if he was surprised. "Shocked. We were going to double team him."

Dyson had done a good job of stopping Pierce's initial penetration, though, perhaps preventing an attempt.

Said Buffalo coach
Reggie Witherspoon
: "I go home thinking about the last play but there are many other plays I'll remember, too."

Buffalo led 51-50 with 10:42 to play in game but it was the last lead the home team would enjoy. UConn went on a 15-2 run to finally seize control.

A post move by Adrien put UConn ahead 52-51, a 3-pointer by Austrie gave the Huskies a four-point cushion and two Thabeet free throws seconds later made it six.

"I was taking good shots today. That's what happened," Thabeet said of his offensive output. "I was able to score because the guys saw me at the right time and I was able to get the ball."

Rather than be intimidated by UConn's national ranking or its substantial size advantage, Buffalo set about trying to knock off the Huskies at the opening tip.

UConn missed its first four shots of the game, while Pierce was scorching the nets for the Bulls.

Pierce hit jump shots on the Bulls' first three possessions of the game to give them a quick 6-0 lead. Dyson finally got UConn on the board two-and-a-half minutes in, but Pierce responded with another jump shot to keep the Huskies at bay.

Thabeet had begun to dominate the paint but the Huskies couldn't pull away from the trophy-hunting Bulls.

The home team's lead grew to eight when
Sean Smiley
beat Walker on a back-door cut, hitting a layup to make it 24-16 Bulls.

Pierce, who scored 17 points in the first half alone, made a driving layup just before the end of the first half to make it 32-32 at the break.

"They probably out-played us in the game," Calhoun said. "Out-worked us, at least."